Ivorian immigrant musicians and mask dancers based in the United States routinely operate in social fields that transcend geographic, cultural, political, and spiritual borders. On cell phones, through social media, and via Western Union money transfers, they have regular, often daily contact with people back in Côte d'Ivoire. They keep up with daily Ivorian print and broadcast news on sites such as Abidjan.net. In dreams, some receive visits from spirits they associate with their natal Ivorian villages. Those who possess the means travel back to Côte d'Ivoire to visit, bring money and gifts, or make sacrifices to ancestors to secure permission to continue performing sacred mask spirits abroad. Through remittances to family and financial propitiation of competitors, performers fend off sorcery attacks leveled at them not only by Ivorians back in their home country but also by immigrants from other parts of the African diaspora living in the United...
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Winter 2016
December 01 2016
Drums, Dance, Dreams, and Remittance: Transnational Interconnections in Ivorian Immigrant Mask Performance in the USA
Daniel B. Reed
Daniel B. Reed
Daniel B. Reed is Associate Professor in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. He is author of the award-winning Dan Ge Performance: Masks and Music in Contemporary Cote d'Ivoire, and the forthcoming Abidjan USA: Music, Dance and Mobility in the Lives of Four Ivorian Immigrants, as well as numerous articles and multimedia publications on Ivorian music and mask performance. [email protected]
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Daniel B. Reed
Daniel B. Reed is Associate Professor in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. He is author of the award-winning Dan Ge Performance: Masks and Music in Contemporary Cote d'Ivoire, and the forthcoming Abidjan USA: Music, Dance and Mobility in the Lives of Four Ivorian Immigrants, as well as numerous articles and multimedia publications on Ivorian music and mask performance. [email protected]
Online ISSN: 1937-2108
Print ISSN: 0001-9933
© 2016 by the Regents of the University of California.
2016
African Arts (2016) 49 (4): 34–47.
Citation
Daniel B. Reed; Drums, Dance, Dreams, and Remittance: Transnational Interconnections in Ivorian Immigrant Mask Performance in the USA. African Arts 2016; 49 (4): 34–47. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/AFAR_a_00312
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